Umbrella Thinking

Posted on March 27, 2008 - Filed Under Self Improvement |

After the July we’ve just had in the UK, and as we get into what might be a sunny August (well it is here, just now) I guess the last thing you want to be thinking about is umbrellas. It’s okay though, this is just a metaphorical umbrella (imagine your own rain if you want or need to).

Umbrella Thinking refers to keeping an open mind - just as you open up an umbrella - easily, you can open up your mind to all sorts of changes and new ideas. It’s worth listening to your self-talk when you’re exposed to a new idea, maybe when chatting with friends, reading the paper or watching television. Now, I’m not suggesting any new ideas are by definition good because clearly they’re not. The trick is to develop flexibility in your thinking so that new ideas get the space in your mind to live and breathe. Yes, you may end up rejecting the idea - not, though, as a knee jerk reaction. (My grandmother, when she heard something she didn’t like, would say “the very idea!” I used to think “a new idea, cool!”)

Let’s make this more specific. There’s been a lot of excitement generated by the Law of Attraction recently, thanks to The Secret movie and related books and DVDs. Now, some people believe the keys to successful living are contained in the Law of Attraction, and others think it’s nonsense - and there are all shades of opinion in between. Well, I’m not getting into that discussion here. What I want you to notice is that it’s called the LAW of Attraction. And I want you to notice your reaction when you think about anything that is described as a ‘law’. Think about that before you read on.

Now, open up your umbrella and see what you make of this idea. It’s something that Richard Bandler discusses in one of his seminars - as soon as anything is described as a law, it closes down our thinking. A law is a law and, if it’s scientific, the word ‘law’ carries the suggestion that everything is known. We close our umbrellas. Even if there’s more to find out, what we think we know already won’t change. It’s the law. So what happens is we don’t think too much, on a day-to-day basis, about how the Universe works because that’s all been explained. When something happens that doesn’t fit, it’s either made to fit or discarded as being outside of the laws of physics, or nature, or whatever. It takes a major shift - a once in a few hundred years shift - for things to change.

So, the Law of Attraction. Keep that umbrella open - how does that seem now? In some ways, calling attraction a ‘law’ is a good thing; when people really believe that what they think about they will get - well, it tends to concentrate the mind doesn’t it? But when you keep your mind open you’ll attract good thoughts and see the ‘bad’ ones for what they are anyway - without feeling you have to accept the ‘Law’ in every detail. For instance, I have a difficulty when people suggest that any illness is something we’ve attracted by the way we live. Yes, the mind is powerful, but sometimes the body has something to say too.

Ian Sharp is an NLP therapist and trainer. He works with clients one-to-one to enable them to make profound changes in their lives, and he works with corporate clients to bring change to their people and so to their organisations. He is also passionate about teaching and learning and is currently bringing NLP into education in the UK.

He is running an open workshop in Aberystwyth, Wales, UK on 1st September on Life Repattering, and is currently writing a book on the same topic.

He publishes a monthly newsletter, ‘The Catalyst’, and subscribers receive a free e-course ‘How to Change Your Thoughts and Change Your Life’. Find out more and subscribe by visiting http://www.nlpcatalysts.com

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